Talk about false advertising.  60 Minutes announced this past Sunday that the segment we were about to see was a ground-breaking scoop which “could be told only now.” Then it went on to rehash a phony WMD story that some Iraqi conman had sold the Germans and on which the American government relied to convince their allies that Saddam really was about to blow up or poison the world. The code name of the conman was “Curveball.” That is when I went into my library next door and looked for a recently arrived book by the same name.

Written by one Bob Drogin, it reveals the anatomy of an intelligence failure that led Uncle Sam into this catastrophic war. The book was published earlier this year. Some scoop for Simon and 60 Minutes.

Later in the program, on another segment, Leslie Stahl, a woman who has the touch of a love-starved cobra, announced that the “Maltese Falcon”, a rather vulgar sailing boat belonging to some Californian tycoon, was “the biggest sailing boat in the world.” You’d think with all of 60 Minutes resources and flunkeys, they’d get something right. A far bigger sailing boat is Barry Diller’s EOS, and much more beautiful to boot. A bit less pomposity and more accuracy would be welcome. If memory serves, 60 Minutes was quite big on Saddam possessing WMD. So why do I expect the program to get it right where sailing boats are concerned?